Today in History for Oct. 10:
On this date:
In 1582, the Spanish Carmelite nun Teresa of Avila died in Alba de Tormes. After entering the Convent of the Incarnation of Avila in 1536, she went on to found 16 other Carmelite convents between 1567 and 1582. She was canonized in 1622. Her order claimed descent from hermits who had lived on the holy mountain of Carmel in biblical times.
In 1710, Canada's first Anglican church service was held in Chebucto, N.S.
In 1801, the Sable Island Humane Establishment was set up as a year-round lifeguard settlement on the sandbar off Nova Scotia known as a deathtrap to seafarers.
In 1864, the Fathers of Confederation met in Quebec to discuss the feasibility of a political union of British North America. The 33 delegates from Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island passed 72 resolutions as an outline to the proposed federal union. These eventually formed the core of the 1867 British North America Act.
In 1886, a tail-less dress coat was first worn at the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo, N.Y.
In 1911, Sir Robert Borden succeeded Sir Wilfrid Laurier as prime minister of Canada.
In 1913, the Panama Canal was effectively completed as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent a signal from the White House by telegraph, setting off explosives that destroyed a section of the Gamboa dike.
In 1920, the Cleveland Indians accomplished three World Series "firsts" in an 8-1 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game Five. Indians outfielder Elmer Smith smacked the first World Series grand slam, Jim Bagby became the first pitcher to homer in a Series game, and second baseman Bill Wambsganss pulled off an unassisted triple play. That remains the only triple play -- unassisted or not -- in World Series history.
In 1930, playwright Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, East London, England. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. He was praised as the most influential British playwright of his generation and a longtime voice of political protest. He died Dec. 24, 2008, at age 78.
In 1938, Nazi Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
In 1949, Radio Corp. of America made the first public showing of its all-electronic television system.
In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force.
In 1970, Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped by FLQ terrorists in Montreal. He was found dead a week later.
In 1970, Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.
In 1971, Britain's historic London Bridge, transported across the Atlantic, opened as a tourist attraction in Arizona.
In 1973, U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace after an investigation found he'd been involved in criminal activity while governor of Maryland. Agnew pleaded no contest to income tax evasion.
In 1974, Harold Wilson's Labour party won a narrow majority in Britain's general election.
In 1977, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, peace activists in Northern Ireland, received the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1978, female pages were allowed in the House of Commons for the first time.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Maximilian Kolbe a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The Polish priest volunteered to die in the place of another inmate at the Auschwitz death camp.
In 1985, two entertainment legends died -- Orson Welles at age 70 and Yul Brynner at age 65. Welles was the man behind the radio play "War of the Worlds" and the classic film "Citizen Kane." Brynner made his mark as the King of Siam in the stage and screen productions of "The King and I."
In 1997, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its co-ordinator, U.S. activist Jody Williams.
In 1997, Israel apologized to Canada for using Canadian passports in its spy operations.
In 2000, the former prime minister of Sri Lanka, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who 40 years earlier became the world's first female prime minister, died at the age of 84.
In 2003, Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her focus on human rights. She was the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win. Ebadi was one of the first women judges in Iran, but was forced to resign following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In 2004, "Superman" star Christopher Reeve died at age 52. He became a force for spinal cord research after a 1995 horse-riding accident left him a quadriplegic.
In 2006, the Yukon Party won the territorial election, taking 10 of 18 ridings, double that of the Opposition Liberals. The NDP won three ridings.
In 2007, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals cruised to a second straight majority term in Ontario's general election.
In 2007, former NHL player Rob Ramage was found guilty on all five charges he faced including impaired driving causing death in a fatal crash that killed former Chicago Blackhawk Keith Magnuson on Dec. 15, 2003.
In 2007, a Russian spacecraft blasted off for the International Space Station, carrying Sheikh Muszaphar, Malaysia's first astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, an American who became the first woman to command the orbital outpost.
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a deal with Nova Scotia over offshore revenue sharing.
In 2008, the Canadian dollar posted its biggest intra-day decline -- falling 4.87 cents against the U.S. dollar. It recovered somewhat near the end of the business day to close down 2.59 cents to 84.69 cents U.S.
In 2008, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his decades of work trying to build lasting peace in various parts of the world.
In 2008, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the federal government planned to buy $25 billion in Canadian mortgage-backed securities in a bid to ease a growing credit crunch faced by the country's banks and other financial institutions.
In 2009, it was announced that the five Alberta women who won the right for women to be legally recognized as "persons" in the landmark 1929 court ruling had been posthumously named honorary senators. It was the first time the Senate had named anyone an honorary senator.
In 2010, Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight, marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers. It flew freely for 11 minutes in the Mojave Desert before landing at an airport runway.
In 2011, Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo became the all-time passing leader in pro football, breaking Damon Allen's record of 72,381 yards. (Calvillo ended his career with 79,816 yards.)
In 2012, the Canadarm on the International Space Station grabbed onto Space X's unmanned cargo ship that brought supplies to the orbiting space lab in the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.
In 2012, former Halifax navy intelligence officer Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle pleaded guilty to all the espionage charges he was facing. In January, he was charged with breach of trust and two charges of passing information to a foreign entity that could harm Canada's interests. (In February 2013, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of nearly $112,000. He was later stripped of his commission, his service decorations and kicked out of the military.)
In 2013, decorated short story author Alice Munro, 82, won the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Canadian-based writer to secure the honour. The Swedish Academy lauded Munro as a "master of the contemporary short story." She became the 110th Nobel laureate in literature and only the 13th woman to receive the distinction.
In 2013, in a split decision, B.C.'s Court of Appeal reversed a lower court ruling that said Canada's assisted-suicide ban violated the charter rights of gravely ill Canadians.
In 2014, Premier Stephen McNeil apologized to the former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children for the abuse and neglect they faced at the Halifax orphanage. Class-action lawsuits were launched by the former residents against the home and the provincial government, which ended in settlements totalling $34 million.
In 2014, children's rights activists Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Yousafzai, a 17-year-old student and education activist, became the youngest-ever Nobel winner.
In 2015, two nearly simultaneous suicide bombings killed 103 people at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey, attended by activists, labour unions and members of the pro-Kurdish party.
In 2016, torrential rain, which was associated with the remnants of hurricane Matthew, caused widespread flooding in communities in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Much of mainland Nova Scotia received more than 100 millimetres of rain while parts of the Sydney area received more than 200 millimetres.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
